The state or country I am talking about is: Illinois
Someone please give me some advice about my crazy neighbor and the lack of action on my landlord's behalf:
My boyfriend, our son, and I moved into our first floor apartment at the end of October of last year (2004), and we have had nothing but trouble from our upstairs neighbors. It began even before we officially moved in. Here's what happened: My boyfriend's and my third anniversary was in mid-October, and I ordered a personalized gift for him to be shipped to our new apartment. After several days and eventually weeks, went by and still no delivery, I contacted the company who told me it had been delivered a week after I ordered it. They gave me a tracking number which I tracked and sure, enough, it had been delivered. I went up the chain of command of the shipper, and even at one point spoke to the actual delivery driver who described where he left the package (on my doorstep). Finally, three weeks later, I knocked on the upstairs neighbor's door and politely asked her if she had seen a package downstairs or if it had been "delivered to her by mistake"--which it wasn't. Sure enough, she handed me the OPENED box which was addressed correctly-to my apartment. She said, "I'm sorry, I opened it by mistake." At this point, I was so relieved to get the package that I did not even question her as to why after all this time, she had not given it back to us. I just let it go. This was the first ever contact I had with her and her fiance.
Over the next two weeks, we had no contact other than cordial "Hellos". The next incident occurred in the afternoon, while my boyfriend, Jeff was at work and I was home with my son. We were in my living room when I heard the neighbor woman yelling from the hallway obcenities, and something along the lines of "Get the trash the f**** out of here." This was especially disturbing to me because the intensity of her anger was shocking to me, considering the issue. It turns out, Jeff had placed a full bag of garbage outside of the apartment door the night before and had forgotten to take it to the dumpster that morning before leaving for work. After hearing the woman and her screaming through my apartment door, I opened the door and asked her not to speak to me that way, that my son (2 yrs) shouldn't have to hear that. For some reason this appeared to fuel her more, some sort of defiance, and she continued stomping up the stairs muttering obcenities and threatening to dump the bag on my doorstep. At this point, I became extremely offended, and, admittedly retaliated with harsh words of my own (sans the obcenities). She continued to fuel the fire, now standing at the top of the stairs, still confrontational, and trying to provoke me using childish names and taunting, which I did not satisfy with a response. I simply shut my door and immediately called my landlord. This was completely unjustified and the woman's behavior was irrational and the closest thing to "crazy" as I've ever seen one person behave.
On the call to "Jim" my landlord, I explained how shook up and anxious I was about what happened, explained that it was a simple mistake of ours to forget to take the bag to the dumpster that morning. I also said that I wanted him to talk to her, and to suggest that she not have any contact with us anymore. That was the end of that.
But wait! There's more..... This was around Christmastime: I have (correction: HAD) a decorative wreath with a snowman attached to it which I hung on the exterior of our apartment's door. (Not the building's door). A few days after I hung it, I noticed that the snowman had been ripped off, and peices of it were all over the hallway and stairs. Now, there is no one else with whom we share our mutual entrance, only her unit and mine. Although I did not see her do this, I know it was her because no one else has a reason to do such a thing, and it is impossible to have happened by "accident". Once again, I let it go.
What happened a few weeks later continues to astound me. Once again, my son and I were home alone in the afternoon, when I heard a loud bang (she was entering the building) from the door slamming. Mind you, this entrance door is about three feet away from my apt front door, so I hear whenever anyone enters and leaves anyway. Anyhow, once again, I hear (through my closed apt door), this woman stomping up the stairs, again shouting in a nasty tone, but I couldn't make out what she was actually yelling about. I opened my door, poked my head out and said to her at the top of the stairs, "Can I help you with something?" in a forced calm voice. What I received was more shouting and yelling, threats to have me evicted, this time because I parked over the line on the street. (All the tenants parallel park on the public street, since there's no parking lot). There had been a recent snowfall, and the lines were not visible because of this. She continued to yell from the top of the stairs, "Move your piece of sh** before I call the police " etc etc etc. She even went so far as to say,"Come up here, I'll beat your a**, chickensh*t, just come up here" Of course I didn't sink that low, but she continued to taunt me, seemingly trying to get me to cross the line, without results. By this time, I was so frustrated and fed up with this womans outbursts and disrespect, that I yelled back at her GO AHEAD AND CALL THE COPS! I'll just tell them how you opened my mail and how you continually harass me over bullsh**!! And admittedly I might have called her a crazy b-word on top of that. I slammed my door and, again, called my landlord. This time he did not answer his home or cell phone and I left distraught messgaes on both. Neither messages were returned, and no action was taken, yet again.
About a half hour after I shut my door, I received a knock on my door from the police. Can you believe it! She called the police and told them that I had parked over the line, and should get a ticket. She told them that when she "nicely" asked me to move it, that I threatened HER!!!! I couldn't believe it and I calmly told the officer about all the trouble this woman had been to us in the three short months we'd been here, and how the situation was the exact opposite of what she had said. He seemed to lean more towards believing me, since he told her, not me, to stay in her apartment and that she should not talk to me anymore, and if she had a problem in the future, she should go to the landlord. He then walked me out to my car, which he deemed to be just fine parked where it was at, and he left. I once again called my landlord, which accomplished nothing because he would not return my phone calls.
Over the next few days and weeks, I had absolutely no contact with her. When she was in the hallway, I would wait to leave until she was in her apartment, and vice versa. Until this morning when the problems started again. It was about 8am this morning, and I was in the bathroom, my son playing just inside our unit's front door, when , YET AGAIN, this woman yelled through my front door from standing in the hallway. This time it was " Shut the F*** Up" in the nastiest tone. This was the last straw. I had enough and was a split-second away from decking her in the face like she deserved. My son had been within earshot, and I immediately opened the door and yelled to her, "Who the hell do you think you are, talking like that? Whats your problem? Are you so unhappy with your life that you have to take it out on everyone else? We have done NOTHING to you. My son doesnt need to hear your crap and neither do I. You're lucky I dont take you to court for harrassment!" And I slammed the door in her face, just proud that I hadn't punched her like I wanted to.
Once again, I called the landlord's phone numbers, and finally reached him on his cell. Explained to him what happened, and how this was the last straw and I want out of my lease if he refuses to do anything about it. He said he would send a generic letter to all the residents, and gave me a fakely-sincere speech about how "he doesn't blame me" for feeling that way, and he'll do his best.
My question is: How do I know when to go ahead and file harassment charges against my psychotic neighbor? And what sort of proof will I need to convict her? There were no other witnesses other than me (and her fiance, who I'm sure would lie for her) for most of these incidents, so what do I have to do to get some sort of proof? And how do I go about filing these charges.? Do I just go to the police department?
Also, what responsibility does my landlord have as far as the other tenants behavior? What are my rights to getting out of my lease?
Someone please help me, this woman can scream in the hallway, shout obcenities with my child present, and disrupt my overall privacy it seems without any repercussion! What do I do?
Someone please give me some advice about my crazy neighbor and the lack of action on my landlord's behalf:
My boyfriend, our son, and I moved into our first floor apartment at the end of October of last year (2004), and we have had nothing but trouble from our upstairs neighbors. It began even before we officially moved in. Here's what happened: My boyfriend's and my third anniversary was in mid-October, and I ordered a personalized gift for him to be shipped to our new apartment. After several days and eventually weeks, went by and still no delivery, I contacted the company who told me it had been delivered a week after I ordered it. They gave me a tracking number which I tracked and sure, enough, it had been delivered. I went up the chain of command of the shipper, and even at one point spoke to the actual delivery driver who described where he left the package (on my doorstep). Finally, three weeks later, I knocked on the upstairs neighbor's door and politely asked her if she had seen a package downstairs or if it had been "delivered to her by mistake"--which it wasn't. Sure enough, she handed me the OPENED box which was addressed correctly-to my apartment. She said, "I'm sorry, I opened it by mistake." At this point, I was so relieved to get the package that I did not even question her as to why after all this time, she had not given it back to us. I just let it go. This was the first ever contact I had with her and her fiance.
Over the next two weeks, we had no contact other than cordial "Hellos". The next incident occurred in the afternoon, while my boyfriend, Jeff was at work and I was home with my son. We were in my living room when I heard the neighbor woman yelling from the hallway obcenities, and something along the lines of "Get the trash the f**** out of here." This was especially disturbing to me because the intensity of her anger was shocking to me, considering the issue. It turns out, Jeff had placed a full bag of garbage outside of the apartment door the night before and had forgotten to take it to the dumpster that morning before leaving for work. After hearing the woman and her screaming through my apartment door, I opened the door and asked her not to speak to me that way, that my son (2 yrs) shouldn't have to hear that. For some reason this appeared to fuel her more, some sort of defiance, and she continued stomping up the stairs muttering obcenities and threatening to dump the bag on my doorstep. At this point, I became extremely offended, and, admittedly retaliated with harsh words of my own (sans the obcenities). She continued to fuel the fire, now standing at the top of the stairs, still confrontational, and trying to provoke me using childish names and taunting, which I did not satisfy with a response. I simply shut my door and immediately called my landlord. This was completely unjustified and the woman's behavior was irrational and the closest thing to "crazy" as I've ever seen one person behave.
On the call to "Jim" my landlord, I explained how shook up and anxious I was about what happened, explained that it was a simple mistake of ours to forget to take the bag to the dumpster that morning. I also said that I wanted him to talk to her, and to suggest that she not have any contact with us anymore. That was the end of that.
But wait! There's more..... This was around Christmastime: I have (correction: HAD) a decorative wreath with a snowman attached to it which I hung on the exterior of our apartment's door. (Not the building's door). A few days after I hung it, I noticed that the snowman had been ripped off, and peices of it were all over the hallway and stairs. Now, there is no one else with whom we share our mutual entrance, only her unit and mine. Although I did not see her do this, I know it was her because no one else has a reason to do such a thing, and it is impossible to have happened by "accident". Once again, I let it go.
What happened a few weeks later continues to astound me. Once again, my son and I were home alone in the afternoon, when I heard a loud bang (she was entering the building) from the door slamming. Mind you, this entrance door is about three feet away from my apt front door, so I hear whenever anyone enters and leaves anyway. Anyhow, once again, I hear (through my closed apt door), this woman stomping up the stairs, again shouting in a nasty tone, but I couldn't make out what she was actually yelling about. I opened my door, poked my head out and said to her at the top of the stairs, "Can I help you with something?" in a forced calm voice. What I received was more shouting and yelling, threats to have me evicted, this time because I parked over the line on the street. (All the tenants parallel park on the public street, since there's no parking lot). There had been a recent snowfall, and the lines were not visible because of this. She continued to yell from the top of the stairs, "Move your piece of sh** before I call the police " etc etc etc. She even went so far as to say,"Come up here, I'll beat your a**, chickensh*t, just come up here" Of course I didn't sink that low, but she continued to taunt me, seemingly trying to get me to cross the line, without results. By this time, I was so frustrated and fed up with this womans outbursts and disrespect, that I yelled back at her GO AHEAD AND CALL THE COPS! I'll just tell them how you opened my mail and how you continually harass me over bullsh**!! And admittedly I might have called her a crazy b-word on top of that. I slammed my door and, again, called my landlord. This time he did not answer his home or cell phone and I left distraught messgaes on both. Neither messages were returned, and no action was taken, yet again.
About a half hour after I shut my door, I received a knock on my door from the police. Can you believe it! She called the police and told them that I had parked over the line, and should get a ticket. She told them that when she "nicely" asked me to move it, that I threatened HER!!!! I couldn't believe it and I calmly told the officer about all the trouble this woman had been to us in the three short months we'd been here, and how the situation was the exact opposite of what she had said. He seemed to lean more towards believing me, since he told her, not me, to stay in her apartment and that she should not talk to me anymore, and if she had a problem in the future, she should go to the landlord. He then walked me out to my car, which he deemed to be just fine parked where it was at, and he left. I once again called my landlord, which accomplished nothing because he would not return my phone calls.
Over the next few days and weeks, I had absolutely no contact with her. When she was in the hallway, I would wait to leave until she was in her apartment, and vice versa. Until this morning when the problems started again. It was about 8am this morning, and I was in the bathroom, my son playing just inside our unit's front door, when , YET AGAIN, this woman yelled through my front door from standing in the hallway. This time it was " Shut the F*** Up" in the nastiest tone. This was the last straw. I had enough and was a split-second away from decking her in the face like she deserved. My son had been within earshot, and I immediately opened the door and yelled to her, "Who the hell do you think you are, talking like that? Whats your problem? Are you so unhappy with your life that you have to take it out on everyone else? We have done NOTHING to you. My son doesnt need to hear your crap and neither do I. You're lucky I dont take you to court for harrassment!" And I slammed the door in her face, just proud that I hadn't punched her like I wanted to.
Once again, I called the landlord's phone numbers, and finally reached him on his cell. Explained to him what happened, and how this was the last straw and I want out of my lease if he refuses to do anything about it. He said he would send a generic letter to all the residents, and gave me a fakely-sincere speech about how "he doesn't blame me" for feeling that way, and he'll do his best.
My question is: How do I know when to go ahead and file harassment charges against my psychotic neighbor? And what sort of proof will I need to convict her? There were no other witnesses other than me (and her fiance, who I'm sure would lie for her) for most of these incidents, so what do I have to do to get some sort of proof? And how do I go about filing these charges.? Do I just go to the police department?
Also, what responsibility does my landlord have as far as the other tenants behavior? What are my rights to getting out of my lease?
Someone please help me, this woman can scream in the hallway, shout obcenities with my child present, and disrupt my overall privacy it seems without any repercussion! What do I do?
